Dave Lowry: “It’s Not Always Going to be Your Night”

The Winnipeg Jets looked downright awful on Thursday night. Playing in just their second home game since December 19, the team was out-scored, out-faceoff’d and out-man-advantaged by the Vancouver Canucks on the evening.

It wasn’t pretty.

Giving up power play goals just 10 and seven seconds, respectively, into separate penalty kills, Winnipeg did little right on its two five special teams opportunities.

“I thought we made a couple mistakes,” interim head coach Dave Lowry said following the 5-1 loss. “I thought we did a lot of really good things. I know the score…they had two power play goals, off of faceoffs. Pucks to the net. And they capitalized on their opportunities.”

The Canucks saw a hat trick from JT Miller, who beat Connor Hellebuyck for his third of the game on a goal the Jets’ netminder certainly would want back. But not willing to throw his workhorse under the bus, coach Lowry did not cast any additional blame on his starter.

“We are not pointing fingers at any individuals,” he said. “This is a collaborative team effort. This is a group that is going to continue to stick together; they are going to continue to work together. We are going to win hockey games here and we are going to do it by not pointing fingers.”

After seeing his team give up another power play marker just 1:08 into the third, Lowry also would not admit to watching his team ‘sag’ before his eyes.

“Well I don’t think we stopped playing,” he muttered. “Yeah, three goals is tough to come back from, but I thought our guys kept playing. I thought we had some opportunities in the third, I thought we had a couple really good looks on our power play. So I’m not going to say our group sagged.”

To his credit, the Jets did outshoot the Canucks, while also holding a very slight edge in hits. But the goal scoring was not there. At times, the zone control was, but the closest the team could get to finding the net was through two crossbars in the middle stanza.

“Yeah, wins and losses aren’t going our way right now, but we’ve dealt with a lot,” captain Blake Wheeler said. “So, we can go through a list and those would be labeled excuses, and I’m not in real big hurry to start using excuses. But fragile is not a word I would use to describe this group. We’ve had to deal with a lot this year.”  

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From multiple injuries and a COVID-ravaged roster to a head coaching change to multiple rescheduled games to the removal of fans in-arena, the Jets certainly haven’t had the easiest of times as of late.

“We have a really young hockey team and we’re also putting new faces in our lineup daily,” Wheeler expanded. “It’s just a lot of different pieces right now, a few wrinkles that have changed in our system, some faces that have changed kind of on a day-to-day basis, a different lineup every night and I think we’ve kind of lost sort of a feel for where everyone’s gonna be.”

How he sees the team regrouping after its sixth-straight loss? Simple, he says.

“Communicate. Keep reinforcing the expectations,” Wheeler said matter-of-factly. “I think communication is the biggest key, just trying to make sure everyone’s on the same page so that we can play fast.”

In terms of playing a half step behind, Wheeler and his mates will certainly be in line for some heavy skating. According to his coach, some man-makers may be on the horizon.

“I think if we are a half step behind, we will just continue to work to get quicker,” coach Lowry said. “It’s not always going to be your night. But the one thing that I will say is that our guys played, and they played right until the end.”

Winnipeg now hits the road for two more ‘away’ games, before returning back to Canada Life Centre. A Central Division matchup with the St. Louis Blues will be the Jets’ first test, come Saturday afternoon. Puck drop is set for 2:00 PM central.